Each morning, Monday through Friday, I'll hook you up with some reading material to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday -- that way I'll have an excuse to do the same at the start of mine.
Running it back:...

The Capitals will put their eight-game winning streak on the line tonight against the Canadiens, and should they pick up a win in Montreal and if the Flyers lose tonight, they will overtake their nemeses from Philadelphia for the top spot in the East....

If the Washington Capitals' meeting with the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night truly represented a measuring stick of their progress under coach Dale Hunter, as players billed it in the hours leading up to the game, then they came up far short....

Over the past week, the Washington Capitals wondered where their offense had gone, but Tuesday night at Verizon Center against the stingy Nashville Predators they found the power switch again.
Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin...

With his Washington Capitals outside the playoff picture and no sign of when the franchise center will return to action, general manager George McPhee chose to not make a move before the NHL trade deadline passed Monday.
McPhee said that while he did make calls, he was never close to making a deal before the deadline. It was a slow day for trades across the NHL — only 16 transactions were made, the fewest on the final day of trading in the seven seasons since the 2004-05 lockout.
"We would have...

Ho, ho, ho. It’s Christmas Eve in April for hockey fans. NHL playoff hockey will begin Wednesday and players will be more revved up than Tiger Woods at a Miss USA contest. No other sport has such an exciting first...

Will the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins meet in the Stanley Cup finals for a third straight spring, or will the San Jose Sharks find the gumption to match their talent?
There's no consensus winner in either conference, mostly because even the elite teams have issues after the summer's free-agent scramble.
The Red Wings lost Marian Hossa to an astonishing 12-year, $62.8-million contract from the Blackhawks, but shoulder surgery will delay his Chicago debut until late November. The Blackhawks...

Mike Knuble Photos

The Capitals have had trouble cashing in this season, but playing five Washington forwards paid off for Jimmy Smith, a Capitals fan from Alexandria, Va.
Smith won the Virginia Lottery's Cash 5 game last month with the lucky combination of 8-19-21-22-28, the numbers of Capitals' top five point-getters. The chances of winning the $100,000 top prize that Smith claimed are 1-in-278,256.
From the corny press release from the Virgnia Lottery:
"Jimmy Smith of Alexandria doesn’t play hockey; he...

When Kings Coach Terry Murray mixes up his line combinations, as happens fairly regularly, players say heâs turning on the blender. Murrayâs blender pumped out some potent concoctions Saturday, powering the Kings to a 4-1 victory over the Washington Capita